Home > No. 11 Podcasts and Christmas
No. 11 Podcasts and Christmas (2005年12月10日)
カテゴリー: The Treasure Hunt Club
投稿者: 名ばかり編集長
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
（Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studies）
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Hello everyone. Welcome to the last Treasure Hunt of 2005. This month we’
ll look at two very different things: podcasts and Christmas. Actually
they might not be so unrelated. You see, Santa knows what you want for
Christmas: an iPod (preferably a nano, right?). And what do you want to
do with your new toy? Well, of course you want to listen to music but
most likely you are also interested in podcasts. The name seems to be
everywhere this year. Podcasts are being used at universities all over
the US and they are being spoken about as a great revolution in
education. Well, they might not be that revolutionary, but they are
certainly a new and exciting tool for educators everywhere. Podcasts are
basically long listening files (think of recorded lectures or radio
programs) that can be downloaded and listened to later from any device
that can play sound files. You don’t need an iPod, in fact, you can use
your home computer, but part of the attraction of podcasts is that you
can listen to them anywhere at your convenience.
Yahoo has recently set up a page where you can go to look for podcasts
on just about any topic you can imagine. This is a wealth of
native-spoken language on thousands of topics that language teachers can
make use of. Podcasts can be broken up for intensive listening
assignments or students can be assigned podcasts for extensive listening
assignments. The potential is indeed exciting. Go to
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ and search for a topic or just browse. Beware,
there is some mature content there so care should be taken when
directing students to the site.
And on to Christmas. Actually, there are three major holidays celebrated
at the end of the year in the U.S., Canada, and many other countries:
Christmas, Hanukka, and Kwanzaa. An historical explanation of the
holidays can be found at
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/main.html. These pages
are full of information on how the holidays are celebrated and how they
developed historically.
Another site with a focus on just Christmas can be found at
http://www.soon.org.uk/country/christmas.htm It introduces Christmas
traditions “around the world,” though they are actually mostly
European.
This month’s Treasure Hunt.
This month’s hunt will be for some interesting facts about Christmas.
Happy hunting!
Here’s the site:
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/main.html
Here are the questions:
1. Though pine branches and other evergreens were used for decoration by
the ancient Romans and the pre-Christian people of Europe, which country
is responsible for the modern popularization of the Christmas tree?
2. St. Nicholas, the origin of Santa Claus, was a bishop in an area near
the modern city of Myra. In which country is Myra located?
（Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studies）
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝□■
Hello everyone. Welcome to the last Treasure Hunt of 2005. This month we’
ll look at two very different things: podcasts and Christmas. Actually
they might not be so unrelated. You see, Santa knows what you want for
Christmas: an iPod (preferably a nano, right?). And what do you want to
do with your new toy? Well, of course you want to listen to music but
most likely you are also interested in podcasts. The name seems to be
everywhere this year. Podcasts are being used at universities all over
the US and they are being spoken about as a great revolution in
education. Well, they might not be that revolutionary, but they are
certainly a new and exciting tool for educators everywhere. Podcasts are
basically long listening files (think of recorded lectures or radio
programs) that can be downloaded and listened to later from any device
that can play sound files. You don’t need an iPod, in fact, you can use
your home computer, but part of the attraction of podcasts is that you
can listen to them anywhere at your convenience.
Yahoo has recently set up a page where you can go to look for podcasts
on just about any topic you can imagine. This is a wealth of
native-spoken language on thousands of topics that language teachers can
make use of. Podcasts can be broken up for intensive listening
assignments or students can be assigned podcasts for extensive listening
assignments. The potential is indeed exciting. Go to
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ and search for a topic or just browse. Beware,
there is some mature content there so care should be taken when
directing students to the site.
And on to Christmas. Actually, there are three major holidays celebrated
at the end of the year in the U.S., Canada, and many other countries:
Christmas, Hanukka, and Kwanzaa. An historical explanation of the
holidays can be found at
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/main.html. These pages
are full of information on how the holidays are celebrated and how they
developed historically.
Another site with a focus on just Christmas can be found at
http://www.soon.org.uk/country/christmas.htm It introduces Christmas
traditions “around the world,” though they are actually mostly
European.
This month’s Treasure Hunt.
This month’s hunt will be for some interesting facts about Christmas.
Happy hunting!
Here’s the site:
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/main.html
Here are the questions:
1. Though pine branches and other evergreens were used for decoration by
the ancient Romans and the pre-Christian people of Europe, which country
is responsible for the modern popularization of the Christmas tree?
2. St. Nicholas, the origin of Santa Claus, was a bishop in an area near
the modern city of Myra. In which country is Myra located?
